Perfect borders made easy

Sweater weather is finally here in my neck of the woods! If youíre a paper piecing aficionado like me, these punched Autumn pins are a great way to use Fiskars Squeeze Punches and create a festive accessory for your fall wardrobe. Each one was created by layering basic shapes and then coated with a crackle medium that gives them a well worn antique look.

Instructions:

1. Using the Circle Shape Template or a pre-punched circle, trace a 2 inch circle on chipboard and cut with either a very sharp craft knife or scissors.

2. Ink the edges of the chipboard circles and adhere to the chipboard circles.

3. Punch 2 inch circles from pattern paper for the backgrounds. I used a neutral cream for all 3 pins. One was a printed word pattern and the othera were a subtle dot pattern.

4. Adhere the pattern paper circles to the chipboard, then coat with a crackle medium and let dry.

5. In the meantime, Punch out shapes for each pin design as shown in each photo and ink edges.

6. Layer and adhere the pieces to create the sunflower, acorns and pumpkin. Youíll see that some shapes have multiple punches. These extra pieces can be stacked to make the paper piecing even more dimensional.

Note: For the sunflower ñ layer the brown branch behind the green branch. Also stagger the flower punches to fill out the flower to mimic the fullness of a sunflower. For the center, hand punch tiny circles from the top light brown layer ñ the darker layer will show through.

For the pumpkin – start with the circle as the base, then layer on the left and right ovals at a slight angle. Adhere the center ovals (3) slightly higher so that the bottom of the circle peeks out a bit. The branches are used both as a stem and as additional leaves/vines.

For the acorns – a portion of the circles and ovals are cut off to create the acorn shape. Again, stacking layers will give it more dimension.

7. Adhere the punched shape to the dry crackled chipboard.

8. Then apply a coat of the crackle medium to the punched shapes.Tip: the ink may bleed a bit as you apply or after you apply the liquid medium, but I found that it added to the antiqued appearance I was trying to achieve

9. When the front is completely dry, flip over and apply liquid glue and set the pin back into the glue. Allow to dry overnight or until the glue is set firm and clear.